I put Incarnate on hold months ago so when it finally became available, I couldn't remember anything about it - aside from the fact that it had a gorgeous cover, of course. So colour me surprise when I finish the book and realize that it actually isn't about butterfly people; instead, the world of Incarnate involves reincarnation, dragons, and sylphs.

Incarnate is a difficult book to review because it has a utopian setting so there aren't many bad-but-exciting events. As a result, the majority of the book is spent focusing on the relationship between Ana and Sam, most of which is spent dancing and playing music, instead of searching for clues about her existence as a Newsoul like the synopsis promised. Although it wasn't a case of instalove, this relationship certainly took over the entire plot and, since I don't know much about playing an instrument, these scenes were often skimmed over.

Instead of reading about Ana and Sam's relationship, I would have much rather learned about the world that they were inhabiting. Between the buildings that were already built and waiting for the first people, the fact that their reincarnations aren't always of the same gender, and the idea of Newsouls in general, there were a lot more questions than there were answers.

Ana, our protagonist, wasn't the easiest to like. She appeared weak and filled with self-loathing, which makes sense given the abuse she suffered. While I understood where she was coming from, her constant self-doubt and dislike it made her narrations hard to read. Her relationship with Sam (who I was indifferent about) is also very unhealthy - she finds her self-worth because of him, and is incredibly dependent on him for everything.

The saving grace of Incarnate was definitely the writing. Meadows' writing is melodic and beautiful, and the descriptions are very vivid.

Overall, I wasn't as impressed with Incarnate as I thought I would be. The idea of reincarnations was promising but poorly executed, mostly due to the prevalence of the romantic plot. I'll likely read the next book in the series though, if only to have some of my world-building questions answered.